Minds of the Movement

I’m sitting by the window in my office, in front of my computer. The chirping of birds and the backfire of a motorcycle are not enough to cover the explosions of heavy weapons nearby, up in the hills above Kenscoff, in Obléon, less than 5 kilometers away. The armed gangs launched their first attack on Kenscoff on January 27, 2025, in the Belot area. There, they massacred farmers and burned down their homes. […]

How has writing changed my life? Sharing my passion for writing about activism. Arusha, December 2024. Credit: Amber French.I had a very unconventional upbringing. I was born in 1974 in South Africa during the Apartheid era. At the time my mother was a domestic worker for a white Jewish family. The dynamics of being brought up through a white lens while my mother lived in the back room as the maid created many internal crises. The country, law and society reinforced the insolence that white is right, and for many decades I believed and adopted that internal racism […]

“As an activist and writer who uses storytelling as a revolutionary tool, I’ve faced much criticism, even from activist circles. Some label us cowards, frauds, or too safe, claiming that real resistance happens only in the streets. But how can they ignore the countless comrades who have been arrested, tortured, or disappeared because of their writing? How can anyone call this form of resistance cowardly when so many have been forced into exile, torn away from their motherlands and loved ones for daring to speak truth to power? […]”

Last August, Nigerians across the nation took to the streets to protest poor governance. Police and other security forces cracked down on the demonstrations, resulting in some 20 deaths. Even prior to this acute repression, the Nigerian state and state-ordered actors had for weeks attempted to instill a climate of fear and control the public narrative about the campaign. Yet concerned Nigerians and the campaign organizers, who hailed from several movements and civil society groups, were prepared to counter these measures. […]

My journey to where I am now—an activist in exile, a wanted “extremist” and part of something greater, started in confusion and isolation but has led to a strong sense of belonging and responsibility. We still have a long way to go in laying the foundation for democracy in Russia, but at least we have started—and I am living proof of that. […]

“To the outside observer, some places may seem hopeless and completely lost. It looks like nothing good comes out of them and there should be no faith in their future. I come from such a place, and my organization fights for it. The Youth Democratic Movement Vesna (“Spring” in Russian) was created in 2013 in Saint Petersburg. For the first eight years of its existence, it was a relatively small (nevertheless, ambitious) youth organization with a focus on local and countrywide issues, and with the main goal of introducing youth to political action in the highly atomized and apolitical Russian society. […]”